Major movements in South Asia


Information about migration in countries of South Asia
This information here mainly explains South Asian's immigration to Middle East


India:
India's migration flourished toward the Middle East in the early 1970s, establishing earlier than other Asian nations. The movement reached its highest peak in the early 1980s and then soon declined, and eventually increased again in the 1990s.
Migration from India originates mostly from a few states, particularly the state of Kerala, with over 55 percent of the migrants. Remittances are particularly relevant for that state, as they count for 20-30 percent of its domestic product.

Bangladesh:
Although Bangladesh started its overseas labor program later than other South Asian nations, but it has constantly increased its participation in it. In addition to the Middle East, Bangladeshis go to peninsular Malaysia, where they rank second following the Indonesians. It is estimated that more than 60 percent of Bangladeshi migrants in 1997 were unskilled.
Nepal:
Nepal has basically two issues concerning migration. The first one consists of migrant workers employed mostly in India. In this flow there are trafficking of women for prostitution are included.
The other issue has to do with the presence of approximately 100,000 refugees, members of the Nepali-speaking Lhotshampa community, who were expelled from Bhutan in 1990. The two governments have not come up to a solution to this issue yet, in spite of repeated negotiation meetings.

Pakistan:
Migration from Pakistan originated in the early 1970s as the construction boom aroused in the Middle East. In the late 1970s, Pakistan had the highest number of workers migrating to the Middle East. In addition, Pakistani workers are found in Japan and South Korea. At the same time, irregular migrants, particularly from Bangladesh, are present in Pakistan. The significant number of people in Pakistan abroad has generated an important flow of remittances (above $2 billion throughout the 1980s).
Lastly, Pakistan has a large number of Afghani refugees.

Sri Lanka:
Sri Lanka was the one who initiated the migration most efficiently by establishing the Bureau of Foreign Employment in 1985 to promote, regulate and develop the foreign employment industry. The flow of migrants has constantly increased and almost all of them are in the Middle East. Since over 60 percent are domestic workers, and for additional information, the male to female ratio is 1:3.




Movements inside South Asia: Migration to India

A large number of people in the countries located near India such as Afghanistan and Nepal are immigrating to India. Since India has the largest economy among all other countries in South Asia, more jobs and better education system are provided. The push factors that make people in other countries move into India are mainly economic reasons; many parts of their countries are not industrialized, which make them suffer from poverty, lack of employment, and economic depression. The other push factor that make them migrate into India is related to political instability of their countries. A lot of countries in South Asia are politically unstable; there are risks of terrorism. For example, the independence war taken place in Bangladesh enforced people in Bangladesh to move to India.
So the pull factors for moving into India could be better economy, because there are more opportunities for employment in India. Also education could be one; there are many people from countries in South Asia migrating to India for education because these days, India is gaining reputation for its rapid developing education system.


T-55_tanks_in_the_Bangladesh_Liberation_War.jpg
(Independence War in Bangladesh, 1971)



Movements to the west
Movements to the West
The push and pull factors why people in South Asia migrate to the West such as North America, Europe, and Australia are similar to the factors of movement to India; one pull factor is that many South Asians, especially people from India, migrate to the countries in the West in order to get jobs which will provide them a higher pay than in India. Also people in South Asia migrate to the west in order to seek for better education, particularly to learn English. The push factors are that there are risks of terrorism and political instability. Also they migrate to the West because they suffer from economic disasters in their home countries.


poverty_240305.jpg
(poverty resulted from economic disasters in South Asia has caused South Asians migrate to the countries in the West, to seek opportunities for employment)




Works Cited

"Asian Migration Atlas." n. pag. Web. 4 Nov 2009. <http://www.scalabrini.asn.au/atlas/amatlas.htm>.
World Regional Geography. 2nd ed. McGrawHill, 2004. 283-324. Print.

URLs for pictures

http://www.undp.org/cpr/disred/images/news/mar05/poverty_240305.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/11/T-55_tanks_in_the_Bangladesh_Liberation_War.jpg